- this edition from my local library
- first published 1956
- translated from French 2021 by Sian Reynolds
- ISBN 978-0-241-48706-8
- 186 pages
Synopsis (publisher)
The poignant story of an outsider falsely accused of murder from the celebrated author of the Maigret series
She was beautiful, full of vitality, and he was sixteen years older, a dusty, lonely bookseller whose only passion in life was collecting stamps.
Jonas is used to his young wife disappearing. Everyone in the town knows that she goes off with other men. This time, however, he tells a small lie to protect her, saying she is visiting a school friend. It is a lie, however, that eats into him like an illness, provoking hostility and resentment against this timid little Russian-Jewish bookseller, who always thought he had been accepted. As suspicion mounts, his true, terrifying isolation is revealed.
My Take
Jonas had always thought of them as friends, but this time when his young wife disappears, the villagers turn on him. His background is that he is a Russian-Jew, whose family fled the Revolution, and he had almost forgotten that and thought they had too. But when young Gina leaves him they remember everything that makes him different and he becomes an outsider.
This is a sad story for there is no way back for Jonas as Simenon explores his final path.
I read this to discuss with my U3A Crime Fiction Reading Group. Our focus this month is Georges Simenon.
My rating: 4.5
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